A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a security element for a security paper, value document or the like, to a value document having such a security element, and to a method for manufacturing such a security element.
B. Related Art
Objects to be protected are frequently equipped with a security element which permits verification of the authenticity of the object and at the same time serves as protection from unauthorized reproduction.
Objects to be protected are for example security papers, identity documents and value documents (such as e.g. bank notes, chip cards, passports, identification cards, identification cards, shares, investment securities, deeds, vouchers, checks, admission tickets, credit cards, health cards, etc.) as well as product authentication elements, such as e.g. labels, seals, packages, etc.
A technology that is widespread particularly in the field of security elements and gives a three-dimensional appearance to a practically planar foil involves various forms of holography. However, such technologies have some disadvantages for the use of a security feature, in particular on bank notes. On the one hand, the quality of the three-dimensional representation of a hologram depends strongly on the illumination conditions. The representations of holograms are often hardly recognizable in particular in diffuse illumination. Furthermore, holograms have the disadvantage that they are meanwhile present at many places in everyday life and, hence, their special rank as a security feature is vanishing.